Kanata Irie
Background Kanata Irie '(入江 奏多, ''Kanata Irie) is introduced as a 3rd year High School Student. He was originaly the leader of the 3rd Court. The rest of the camp acknowledge him to be amongst the strongest in the camp despite not being in the 1st Court as it is revealed it is his choice to stay in a lower court, similar to how Oni Juujiro is much stronger than the court he stays in. He later becomes the No.20 All-Japan Junior Representative after defeating Akiba Kōyō, who Kanata seemed to be familiar with. Appearance Irie wears very round glasses and has blonde(strawberry blonde in the anime) hair that is very curly. He is significantly shorter than all of the other 3rd Year High Schoolers and the majority of all the other schoolers for that matter as he is considerably shorter than several middle schoolers. Personality He commonly tends to exclaim how outclassed he is by his opponents or pretends to panic, showing his excellent acting skills and then suddenly uses the phrase 'Just Kidding' before annhilating his opponent. Irie never begins matches at full strength and relies on Insight and his amazing speed during matches. It is impossible to tell if Irie is arrogant or right during matches because of the confusion his acting causes. He has a tendency to look down on others, but has also been shown to recognize others talent. Therefore it is easy to conclude that Irie has a rather whimsical personality, yet is oddly analytical. Irie also has a habit of holding his lapel while talking. Irie is also shown to be a very skilled Saxophone player, and has to shown to practice at a balcony of the Camp everynight. Irie is always shown to be calm, collected and with a happy expression on his face which allows him to fool opponents. However his expression dramatically changes when an opponent insults his acting. This is shown during his match against Akiba Koyo in which the latter berates him for his cheap acting. At this moment, Irie who wasnt taking the match at all seriously changed his mannerisms and with an angry expression instantly crushed Akiba. U-17 Camp Irie's first appearance in the series is with Tokugawa Kazuya and Oni Jūjirō while some of the middle schoolers invited to the camp are crushing some of the High Schoolers after the latter challenged them for the tennis balls that were suddenly necessary to stay in the camp according to the Mental Coach of the camp. Irie warns all those playing that personal and private matches are prohibited within the camp. Irie later appears during the Middle Schoolers swift rise to the 5th and 6th Courts warning Atobe Keigo that it was far too soon for them to reach the 3rd Court. It is then revealed Irie is the captain of the 3rd Court at that time and plays in Singles 1 against Atobe for the Team Shuffle between 5th Court and 3rd Court. Irie begins poorly losing 0-5, however it was revealed Irie was pretending to be overwhelmed and walks over Atobe and takes the match to 6-5 almost instantly. Irie then decides to have fun and play around until he causes Atobe to unleash his new technique, Atobe Kingdom. Atobe then keeps up with Irie however the technique demands a high level of focus and energy which causes Atobe to collapse twice. During the match Oni reveals that like himself, Irie is far better than 3rd Court level and that his real strength is far higher meaning that Atobe's chances of winning were extremely minimal. Upon the second time, satisfied with the match, Irie allows the match to end a in a draw by claiming he cant move his left shoulder. It is revealed by Tanegashima Shūji in one of the changing rooms that this was a lie and that Irie could have defeated Atobe if he wanted to as Tanegashima throws a towel at Irie for him to dry his face which Irie catches with his left hand perfectly, giving away the lie that Irie couldnt move his shoulder. The Middle School losers then return from the mountains and switch places with the 2nd Court. Irie then challenges Akiba for his No. 20 badge of the All-Japan Juniors upon the 1st Stringers return from their Foreign Expedition. It is here when it revealed that Irie was infact 1st Stringer material however he stayed behind to raise the level of the All Japan Juniors just like Oni Juujiro. Against Akiba Kōyō, he performs his usual antics which involve pretending to be pressurized. Akiba however, insults Irie which provokes him. Irie becomes serious and instantly defeats Akiba as he becomes the 20th Japan representative. Irie then arrives to the main courts with the other players awaiting the encounter between the Top 10 and their challengers. Tennis Record Playing Style and Techniques Irie is Left-Handed. Irie tends to hold back against his opponents and waits until his opponent has confidence before utterly shattering it. He commonly tends to exclaim how outclassed he is by his opponents or pretends to panic, showing his excellent acting skills and then suddenly uses his most common phrase 'Just Kidding' before completely defeating his opponent. Irie never begins matches at full strength and relies on Insight and his amazing speed during matches. Irie's confidence shattering mind games and his play style is very much depicted in his stats. He has 2 out of 5 in '''Stamina, 1 in Power, 6 in Speed, 6 in Technique and 7 in Mentality. World of Ice : A high level technique in which the user can see all of the opponents blind spots and is able to aim at them leaving the opponent unable to return the shot. This high level of technique requires a high amount of both Insight and focus. Trivia *He will be voiced by Hiroki Aiba, who is the third person from Musicals, who is viocing in Prince of Tennis (the first was Moriyama Eiji, who played Momoshiro Takeshi from first generation and voiced Ibu Shinji and second was Araki Hirofumi, who played Inui Sadaharu from second generation and voiced Zaizen Hikaru). He played Fuji Shūsuke in second and third generation. He has been the longest serving actor to play Fuji, as well as the longest serving actor in Tenimyu. Since his graduation, the role of Fuji was played by Yūta Furukawa. *He knows how to play the saxophone. *In the 1st New Prince of Tennis Popularity Poll, Irie came 1st in the High Schoolers list as the most popular High School Character, and scored 30th in the overall list of both Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers. * Category:Characters Category:Tennis Player Category:High Schooler Category:3rd Year High School Category:Left-Handed Category:U-17 Camp